Die Sonne von Mexiko

Die Sonne von Mexiko (The Mexico Sun) The title of this series of drawings derives from the name of an inn once situated along Andreas Seltzer’s route to school at Frankfurt am Main. All the way into the eighties it was a place where boozers, tricks from the nearby brothel lane Breite Gasse, as well as river boatmen dreaming of the grand transatlantic passage met. In formal terms, this series employs the same cartographic regard Seltzer tried out first in his works on Jules Verne’s „Journey to the Center of the Earth“ (2006-2012). There he followed the concentric circles leading into the earth’s interior. Here, however, no longer grotesquely distorted geological layers of the underground, but particles of bodies, and fragments of things, are transformed to hybrid beings, or fractured into near- undecipherable detail. What characterizes the formations thereof is their joy of playing. The densely chequered backdrop they act before operates as a catcher of forms, jumbling together manifold graphic elements and lending them depth. Red, black, grey, and white are the leads here. They do not follow any pre-determined plan, but act on impulses that are about densification, separation, and dissolution. This results in stories with carnivalesque, with circus traits, stories that speak in riddles, that disguise as puzzle pictures displaying balances or utter clumsiness. Thus, if all goes well, suspense may come into play, and viewers of these pictures may turn into players.